I'm trying my hand at some videos, to get a series going for the front page. If people like them I will do more as well as branch into Standard.

My first one was a Theros 8-4 draft. It was my first time ever recording and also my first time using the MTGO Beta in years, so bear with me.

Enjoy! Feedback appreciated on video quality as well as play quality. I made a couple of minor errors, most of which I am blaming on my unfamiliarity with the beta client (Strive seems to trigger differently.)

- Try to keep talking. Silence is probably one of the worst things you can have in a video. Try to find something to talk about, anything really. You can go over deck archetypes, go into more detail about why you like THS block draft, talk about yourself, make fun of your opponents, make fun of Zman, make fun of red players more (it didn't quite have that Katey zing I'm so use to seeing), etc- At the beginning you said that you prefer to play U/G and if not that, W. Why's that? What makes U/G awesome enough to force through mediocre picks even though white/red was way the hell open?- I liked the part at the beginning when you were evaluating cards, do more of that.- A couple times you mentioned that everything was viable except U/R. What makes it so bad? The first deck had a really good showing.- There were a couple parts you could have edited down, especially the very beginning when you were waiting for the queue to fill up.

I liked the video and I'm looking forward to more. Draft, sealed, limited, standard, modern, whatever. I like all four formats.

- Try to keep talking. Silence is probably one of the worst things you can have in a video. Try to find something to talk about, anything really. You can go over deck archetypes, go into more detail about why you like THS block draft, talk about yourself, make fun of your opponents, make fun of Zman, make fun of red players more (it didn't quite have that Katey zing I'm so use to seeing), etc- At the beginning you said that you prefer to play U/G and if not that, W. Why's that? What makes U/G awesome enough to force through mediocre picks even though white/red was way the hell open?- I liked the part at the beginning when you were evaluating cards, do more of that.- A couple times you mentioned that everything was viable except U/R. What makes it so bad? The first deck had a really good showing.- There were a couple parts you could have edited down, especially the very beginning when you were waiting for the queue to fill up.

I liked the video and I'm looking forward to more. Draft, sealed, limited, standard, modern, whatever. I like all four formats.

a couple things here

1) i was literally forgetting that i was recording a couple of times, and had to mentally remind myself to keep talking. this is something i will have to remind myself to do.

2) i will try and do a better job of explaining limited thoughts, it is easy to forget that not all viewers do nothing but draft for weeks at a time and a format becomes second nature

3) technical things like editing were not a focus for me here, i decided to run the video out uncut, i plan on taking your advice and trimming as needed between rounds

as for this draft itself, i don't believe white was very open. you can see i tried to move into it in the first pack as early as picks three and four but it just wasn't there. it was just a weak pack one. there were luckily only a couple picks i would consider mediocre, but these i did in the name of early color consistency. i will gladly explain about blue/red and why i don't like red in general in future videos, as well as why i prefer blue/green. these are all things i will have fun talking through for viewers.

Kait could be the MTGO equivalent of the angry videogame nerd, and I mean this in a positive way, your derisional (Self at times) and abrasive humor is one of your strengths who puts you aside from the flock.

I always took your humor to be more like a needle sliding between your ribs to jab at your heart. The AVGN is sledgehammer that smashes your heart, lungs, and ribs all at once. Those small jabs are painful enough to remind you of the absurdity of trying to out alpha another nerd whose "sport" is relatively unknown, pays for shit, and can't even get you laid. At least the League of Legends pros can pull some convention cosplay pussy a couple times a year.

admin » Sat Jul 05, 2014 3:55 am wrote:Kait could be the MTGO equivalent of the angry videogame nerd, and I mean this in a positive way, your derisional (Self at times) and abrasive humor is one of your strengths who puts you aside from the flock.

So should I expect him to go on a tangent about buffalo shits and awkward portmanteaus of shit, and jizz whenever he gets Ranched by mana flood?

It was good the first time around, I think it is a low pick to nearly unplayable in M15 with the aggressive nature of decks. Had I not stumbled in game three my opponents Grindclock wouldn't have done anything (they almost died regardless)

-feral incarnation over undergrowth scavenger : incarnation is a card you play only out of desperation in my opinion. At that cost you only want real bombs. Undergrowth scavenger instead is very good in the b/g graveyard deck that you should consider since you are already in b/g.

- second living totem over satyr wayfinder. I strongly disagree with this. You needed two drops badly at that point, and wayfinder is one of the best two drops. He works very well with convoke providing you a body and (usually) a land, and again has synergy with the graveyard.

- sign in blood over restock. Always because of the graveyard strategy. Restock is a much better draw spell when you have good cards in the yard.

You may think i value this stupid grave strategy too much, but this is because a guy from my area (Andrea Mengucci, who top 8'ed Pro tour Journey into nyx being king of the hill ) wrote an article about that. I will post it here as soon as i find it.

I definitely understand the strengths of the graveyard strategy, I'm still a bit seduced by the GW convoke decks and you can see how it affected some of my picks here. Feral Incarnation was me wanting to try a card (and Scavengers come late), I should have run a maindeck Unmake the Graves over it, although I don't regret the pick from a learning perspective. I stand by the Sign in Blood pick over Restock as a personal call, I think my deck needed the former quite a bit.

As for the Wayfinders, you could hear my laments through the draft. I let one too many go by and agree with you of course on that. I needed that last one over Living Totem but got greedy.

Well , the well-built convoke decks are probably the best you can have in the format, but not because of feral incarnation and yes, probably unmake the graves would have been better.

I can definitely understand picking sign in blood at that point .... a cheap draw spell can ensure you hit land drops, and you even burned your opponent out with it in the first game. But generally i would say restock is a better pick than sign in blood in b/g.

I was referring to how much I like Totems when I mentioned GW, not the Incarnation. Honestly I haven't seen it opened in any videos I've watched, let alone picked or passed, so experimentation was in order. It's definitely dropped in value in my books a bit, although it's not unplayable. I've been spending all my time on an MMO lately so these are my release drafts for M15.

This isn't me being defensive by the way, I'm happy to be discussing the videos, otherwise I have no reason to keep making them. I'm glad to hear 3 drafts in that Incarnation isn't as good as I hoped, keeps me from picking it early again.